Candy Corn Nightmares
by Rabidnar
Summary: Halloween gives Cameron nightmares.
1. The Mirror Is Bleeding

__**Disclaimer: **I do not own House MD or any of its characters!

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**Candy Corn Nightmares**

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_I am the clown with the tear-away face;  
__Here in a flash and gone without a trace.  
__I am the 'who' when you call, "Who's there?"  
__I am the wind blowing through your hair.  
__I am the shadow on the moon at night;  
__Filling your dreams to the brim with fright!_

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_The mirror was bleeding. It was a full length wall mirror with a frame and it was propped up against the door of Cameron's beige Saturn Aura with a red substance oozing down the front of it. The tangy smell of blood combined with burning leaves in the crisp, Autumn air filled her nostrils every time she inhaled. She had traced her fingers across the frame and down the glass, turned the mirror side to side – and even upside down, but there was no indication of where the blood was coming from. A never ending supply of red pooled on the hospital parking lot in front of Cameron's feet. She was both fascinated and disgusted at the same time, wondering where House had come across such a gruesome creation. If he had stolen real blood from the hospital, she would kill him. Leave it up to House to torture her with the holiday even when she was finally off the clock._

_Cameron had always hated Halloween – and House knew it. It wasn't the screaming children nor the gruesome masks that bothered her, but that ominous feeling that lasted throughout the entire evening. So he set up his little traps and made her feel like there was something around every corner. She had already been attacked by a bucket full of plastic spiders falling on her head, a mechanical hand that grabbed her when she tried to reach into one of her filing cabinets, and House himself wearing a hockey mask. Needless to say, she was already irritated and the mirror that was now starting to spook her didn't help. Her hands trembled as she pulled the mirror away from the car door and took a peek behind it. It was nothing more than a flat board._

"_Pretty amazing, huh?" a male voice spoke up from behind her._

_Cameron startled. Her hands slipped and she half jumped, half stumbled backward as the mirror crashed onto the ground in front of her and shattered. Her hands flew to cover her mouth and she spun to the side to face the man who had spoken to her. "I'm so sorry," she spoke through her fingers. Shards of glass littered the asphalt and glittered in the moonlight. She pulled her hands back slightly. "Was that yours?" she asked, her eyes wide with guilt. She looked down at the broken mirror again and shook her head. "I am so sorry."_

"_It's alright," the man answered calmly, "You're not the first person to have broken one."_

_Cameron looked up at him again. His words didn't make her feel any better about the broken mirror. She took in his appearance, realizing that he couldn't have been any older than eighteen. He was dressed as Dracula, and dressed well at that. He had pale skin and slicked back black hair, and he was dressed in a suit and wrapped in a black and red cloak. If it wasn't for the fact he kept pushing up his plastic fangs as he spoke, he would have made a very convincing vampire._

"_Are you okay?" he inquired. His fangs gave him a lisp as he spoke. "The glass didn't cut you, did it?" He offered out his hand to help her step away from the shards._

"_No, no, I'm fine," Cameron answered quickly and finally lowered her hands away from her mouth. After a moment's hesitation, she reached out and took his hand. He held her steady as she did a slight hop over the glass. "How did you make that?" she asked._

"_Got a few friends good with stuff like that," he answered with a smirk. "Name's Carter by the way. I got a few more tricks up my sleeve if you'd like to see him."_

_It might have been the fangs, but the smirk unnerved her. Cameron shook her head and made an ambiguous hand motion toward the driver's side of her car. "Someone's going to be wondering where I am," she replied. It was a lie. She lived alone and no one would even notice where she was until work the next morning. She offered a polite smile then took a few steps to walk around the car. "I'm sorry."_

"_Oh, come on," Carter tried to lure her in. "It's only a few magic tricks. Humor a guy, huh?" He gripped the sides of his cloak and wrapped it around himself. "Humor a guy, huh? Being a few minutes late couldn't hurt. And you _did_ break my mirror after all."_

"_I'm already late." Cameron's smile faltered. She began to realize that maybe she should stop talking and get in the car. She turned to make a beeline for the door, but before she could even blink, he was beside her and had a grip on her arm. _

"_C'mon, Allison," Carter whispered in her ear. She could feel his warm breath on her cheek. "It's Halloween. This could be a once in a lifetime chance."_

_Her feet suddenly felt rooted to the ground. "How do you know my name?" she all but whispered. She turned to face him then leaned back when his face was only centimeters away from her own. Her heart had been thumping in her chest. "I don't have time for games," she stated and tried to tug her arm away. "Let go."_

"_I don't mean to stereotype," he said, "but you doctors are always so serious." He reached an arm around her and grabbed her other arm. His fingers dug into her skin, piercing it with his nails. Blood began to appear on the surface of her arm._

_Cameron's vision flashed white for a moment as she panicked. In one swift movement, she tried to tear both of her arms away, but he tightened his grip even more and pulled her closer. She realized she was going to need to scream, and he realized what she was going to do at the same time. He let go of one arm and clamped his hand tightly over her mouth to muffle the cry. The parking lot was empty of people. No one was going to hear her. As she tried to twist away, he let go of her arm and swiftly grabbed her hair then bashed her head against the side of her car._

_Everything went black._

xxxxx

_There was so much fog that Cameron's lungs were struggling to suck in air. She was lying flat on her stomach when her eyes finally fluttered open, but she couldn't see a damn thing through the mist that surrounded her on all sides. Hot, humid air drenched her in sweat and made her clothes stick to her body. Her shirt had ridden up to just below her breasts and the rough floor scraped her stomach as she was dragged across it by her feet. The aching in her head registered right away but it took longer for her panic to set in. She felt as though she had been drugged. Her thoughts were thick and slow and she could barely concentrate on her fear or that she was being moved. But it did occur to her that something was very wrong._

"_Help!" She tried to call out, but her words were soft and muffled. She managed a groan as she ran her tongue over the stale tasting cloth that gagged her. It was soaked with something salty and she could only assume it was her blood. "Let me go!" she pleaded, but she could barely even make out what she was saying. She tried to kick her feet, but they wouldn't do what she wanted them to._

_Her feet suddenly were dropped to the floor and the pitter patter of footsteps registered in her ears as someone raced away. She tried to suck in more oxygen as she lay sprawled out, not moving. Her heart was beating faster than it ever had in her entire life. She had to get out. She wasn't even sure if she could get up. Her eyes fluttered open and closed. The fog made it hard to see even an inch in front of her. Her hand was near her face, but she could barely even make out the outline of her fingers. Tears stung her eyes, but fear kept her in too much shock to cry. Her body felt fused to the floor as though there was a magnetic force pinning her down. She contemplated just staying there until someone found her – or, worse, whoever left her there came back for her._

_The eerie sound of nails scraping across the floor somewhere near to her made her change her mind. Her body trembled on its own accord and she forced her hands to corporate with her and press flat against the floor. She inhaled slowly and then used all of her strength to put her weight on her arms and push herself up onto her knees. Once she was in prime position to scramble to her feet, she did just that – but she moved too quickly. The world spun around her when she was finally standing, and the floor came back up to meet her. She let out a small cry as she landed on her bottom and pain shot up through her spine. The pain was immediately replaced with relief when it hit her that the fog was only just a little more than waist-high though. The rest of the room had been pitch black._

_Cameron moved slowly this time, pressing her hands against the ground again and rising back into a standing position. She wobbled but somehow remained upright. She couldn't see anything aside from a neon, red sign off to the side. The words were blurry, but if she squinted, she could just make out an arrow and '_This Way To Exit Please_'. She bit down on the gag. _Please_? Were they _serious_? Her mind told her to stay put, but she gravitated toward the sign like a moth to a light. It was hard to walk, but she managed as she kept her hands out in front of her in search of support. She had expected the sign to be attached to a wall, but as she walked under it, she realized it must have been hanging from the ceiling. She dropped her arms to her sides and turned in the direction of the arrow then smacked face-first into the wall that she had been looking for. She stumbled back and swore tearfully against the gag._

_Her eyes darted back and forth but all she could see was darkness and she reached her arms out in front of her again. She pressed against the wall, fully expecting it to be a door. It didn't budge. She couldn't even find a doorknob. She coughed several times, trying to exhale the air she had previously been breathing then took a step back. As she inhaled again, she stepped forward and attempted to throw her weight against the wall. She seemed to move right through it and tripped over her feet, collapsing on the ground with a smack that echoed throughout the entire room. The air was knocked right out of her. A drawn-out sob escaped her lips and she pressed her face against her arm as pain engulfed her chest. She curled up her legs and entangled her fingers in her hair as tears began to stream down her face and fall to the floor. Crying hurt. Breathing hurt._

"_Get up," Carter's voice demanded in a harsh whisper. It echoed throughout the room and Cameron couldn't tell which direction it was coming from. "I said get up!"_

"_What do you _want_ from me-e-e," Cameron begged. Her shoulders quaked with sobs and she forced herself to sit up. Her voice sounded more like a slur of syllables than actual words. She grunted and reached her hands behind her head, violently tearing at the knot until it began to loosen. She tugged the fabric free then threw it to the side. Her mouth felt as though someone had stuffed cotton into it and fuzz from the material stuck to her tongue. She wiped her tongue directly with the back of her hand then gagged and spit on the floor. "What do you _want_?!" She thrashed her hand in the direction she had come from. Her knuckles slapped the wall and she drew back with a yelp of pain. She clutched her hand to her aching chest and clamped her eyes shut._

"_Do I need motivation to make you move?" Carter inquired._

_Cameron shook her head back and forth multiple times. Whatever he had in mind as motivation to force her to her feet, she didn't want to know. The pain that engulfed her entire body was almost unbearable as she climbed to her feet one more time. She reached out to the side, slowly this time, and rested her hand against the smooth, cold wall. As she was taking a moment to catch her breath, the lights flickered on._

_Cameron opened her eyes and came face to face with herself in a mirror. Blood trickled down over her white skin and her eyes were nothing more than black holes. She gasped and stumbled backwards then crashed into yet another mirror. Her reflection was still the same. She whimpered and turned to the side, hit another mirror, then spun in a frantic circle and darted in the opposite direction. It was impossible to tell how many mirrors she hit as she struggled to find a way out, losing her bearing just as quickly as she gained them. The dim light made it hard to tell if she was coming or going. "Let me go!" she pleaded, "Please, let me go!"_

_The light shut off again and Cameron crashed into another mirror hard enough to crack it. It didn't occur to her that maybe she could find a way out of the maze if she would slow down. Terror urged her to go faster. Arms stretched out in front of her, she felt as though she was running in circles as she hit mirrors left and right – never managing to go more than a few inches without finding another one. _

_The light started to flicker again – first slowly and then quickly like a strobe light. This only disoriented her further. A cloaked form, face hidden from view, appeared in all directions around her except for one. She darted away from it and ran straight into another tunnel of darkness._

_The floor dropped out from under her._

_Cameron shrieked and instinctively threw her arms over her head as her body came into contact with concrete stairs and tumbled downward for what felt like forever. By the time the floor became flat again, she couldn't even cry. Her surroundings became a painful blur and the last thing she remembered seeing before she lost consciousness was House's god damn hockey mask beside her face._

xxxxx

"No!" Cameron snapped awake and bolted to her feet, away from the couch in the lounge that she had passed out on after her shift in the ER. She collided with a wall and froze as something dropped and scattered on the ground. Pieces of candy corn poured onto the floor in front of her feet. Her gaze snapped up to the _wall_ she had crashed into. Thirteen stood in front of her, holding a now empty candy corn bag. She was staring at Cameron in confusion, her mouth half full of candy corn, which she had suddenly stopped chewing. Cameron's face flushed bright red.

Thirteen finally managed to swallow the food in her mouth then looked down at the rest of it on the floor before up at Cameron again. "Are you okay?" she managed. Both of them were flustered. The silence that answered seemed to make Remy nervous and she glanced around the lounge to see if anyone else was there. "Dr. Cameron?"

"Yes," Cameron blurted out, out of breath. She exhaled a breath she didn't realize she had been holding and moved to sit down. The candy corn bag fell to the ground and Thirteen's hands came to rest on her arm and lower back to help her. Cameron didn't push her away. She leaned forward once she was seated and rested her head in her hands then just tried to breathe. She pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes.

Remy awkwardly moved her hands away from Cameron as it seemed to sink in that she was letting them linger too long. "Wolves," she said suddenly.

Cameron lifted her head and furrowed her brow in confusion. "What?" she asked.

"Wolves," Remy repeated with a shrug. She seemed to adjust to where she was and turned to the side, bending her leg so it would fit onto the couch. She rested sideways against the cushion. "Sometimes I have this dream that wolves are after me," she admitted, "I think I'm getting away, but…" Her voice trailed off and she rested an elbow on the back of the couch. She made an ambiguous hand movement. "I start trembling and then I can't breathe. They tackle me to the ground. Gets pretty gruesome after that." She wrinkled her nose and leaned her head against her hand. "You?"

"Halloween," Cameron answered and left it at that. The dream had already started to become fuzzy and she straightened up then leaned back against the cushions. She looked at the floor and the mess that she had made.

Thirteen followed her gaze to the candy. "Yeah, that was Kutner's," she said and waved it off. "Are you sure that you're…" Her voice trailed off again and she lowered her elbow off the couch to rest her hand hands on her knees. She stared past Cameron and leaned forward a bit as her eyebrows furrowed. "House has some pretty good tricks, doesn't he?"

Cameron glanced over at her then spun around to see what she was looking at. There was a mirror on the lounge wall. It was bleeding.


	2. Author's Page

**Author's Note**

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This story has been updated as of November 9, 2012. Feel free to reread as minor changes have been made.  
Review replies will be placed on this page.

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**Review Replies**

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**You Can't Forget This: **Halloween fics are a blast! Tough to write, but a blast!

**WrongObsession: **Mm. Remy to the rescue ftw! I have a mental image of her flying through the mirror in a cape, being all Super-Remy. That's not weird, right?!

**Anonymousow: **Nope, no continuation! Just a rewrite!

**EvaH2Os: **Thank you for the review!

**Rabia: **I like it how it is though. I have plenty of stories where Cadley is the main focus. Sometimes it's great to just take a breather and focus on something else!

**Athyna DaughterofPosiedon: **A sequel is definitely not going to happen. But, here, have a rewrite!


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